Checkmate
by Saotome-sama
Summary: One day when Ranma Saotome and Akane are camping....


  
Rumiko Takahashi created Ranma 1/2.  
  
Checkmate  
  
=I wonder what's up with Ranma?= Akane looked at her fiancé with mixed feelings. It was late and she was very tired from her day spent trying to find this secluded camping ground. She hated it when her father made her go on these stupid training trips. Already she was sore from the hike up the mountain. At least this time it was just Ranma, and not him and his father.  
  
Ranma hadn't spoken much on the trip, and was only now seeing to her. He had entered her tent and was now sitting quietly looking at the floor, his feet, the blankets, and anything else that wasn't her. On his face he looked like he was thinking very hard about something, but Akane knew Ranma, that couldn't have been the case. After a length of time he asked, "Did you have a enough to eat?"  
  
To say she was surprised, was putting it mildly, this wasn't  
something she had expected. "Is everything all right," she finally blurted out? "...What are you doing in my tent?" Ranma looked at her, and at last smiled.  
  
"Akane... despite what you might think of me... I really think of you as one of my better friends..." Akane opened her mouth and started, this was the only time Ranma had ever openly admitted to liking anything about her. "In fact... probably my best." Then Ranma smiled, and Akane felt her heart melt. There had been a couple dozen times like this for her, when neither her nor Ranma seemed to want to fight each other. All Akane wanted from life were a few more moments like this.  
  
"Ranma..." Akane blushed deeply. "I... I... kind of like you  
too..." She looked down and smiled a shy little smile.  
  
" `Kind of'? " Akane liked this new Ranma, he seemed much more at peace with himself. Ever since that battle with Saffron, he had changed dramatically. The little things she had cared about before, the parts of him, he tried so hard to keep hidden, were now escaping finally shinning through in him. Akane had always known the real Ranma was lurking just under the surface, but had never expected him to open up to her so soon.  
  
"All right," She said as she looked away from him. "You are my  
best friend."  
  
"That's more like it." Akane could hear the smile on his face with his sarcastic response. She knew she shouldn't look at him, or she might do something she might later regret. Looking out the nylon window of her tent she prayed for a shooting star. "As my friend you'd be happy for me if I was happy... right?"  
  
Akane looked back to him, her lips hid a troubled line. "Right..." She said it slowly, not knowing where the conversation had gone.  
  
"That's good." Ranma stood up smiling at her, turning he went to leave her tent. "Don't let me forget... I need to tell you something."  
  
Akane jumped up to her feet, "What?" Akane really didn't like  
where this was going.  
  
"I'll tell you tomorrow."  
  
"Tell me now, I'm up!" Akane made a motion to stop him from  
leaving her tent.  
  
"Akane." He said it monotone like he was speaking to a disorderly child. "Goodnight."  
  
"Can you at least give me a hint?" Akane tried to get back to  
lighter mood of only moments earlier.  
  
"all right... A hint." He raised his voice in the last part in  
mock anger. Ranma though for a moment on what he could say with out  
telling her too much, finally he decided. "Akane... There's this girl... I care for her." Akane fell before the might of Ranma's most devastating attack.  
  
=I can't believe he loves someone else.= Akane laid in her dark  
tent listening to the sounds of Ranma's snores from outside. Having been such a pretty night Ranma had decided on sleeping under the stars instead of putting up his own tent. Akane had warned him several times it was suppose to rain, but still he was determined to sleep outside. Though it was a fairly warm night, Akane felt a biting chill in her body.   
  
She tried to think of who he might be in love with. She had ruled out Kodachi, because they both had a healthy disrespect for the black rose. Shampoo was a good possibility but Akane hoped it wasn't her, Akane and her had gained a grudging respect for each other, but still! Akane just didn't want Ranma with that Amazon hussy. Of everyone Akane hoped it was Ukyo, she was the only one who seemed to love Ranma for Ranma. There were also so many others too... Akane found it turning into a daunting task.  
  
"Akane can I come in?" Akane looked from domed top of her tent to the open flap. In the entrance way stood a gorgeous red-headed girl,  
dripping wet from the downpour going on outside. Akane hadn't even heard the rain start. Just behind Ranma, she could see what was becoming a potential flood pouring down.  
  
"Come on in." It was spoken without a trace of emotion.  
  
"Thanks Akane, you're a life saver." Ranma came in trying to get as little water on Akane as possible. After a moment she was setting up a tent safe grill for some hot water. "Gee... I guess we won't be doing much training today." When Akane didn't answer Ranma tried to get back to sleep having turned back to her male body.  
  
After a short eternity Akane asked a question to the dark. "Who is she..?"  
  
"What?" Ranma's sleep weary voice answered.  
  
"The girl you love," Akane almost choked on the word. "Who is  
she."  
  
"Akane," Ranma wined. "I said I'd tell you tomorrow."  
  
"It is tomorrow, and I'm up." Akane sat up to her knees, looking at her fiancée.  
  
"Okay Akane, you need to rest. I'll tell you tomorrow." Ranma  
tried to talk to her, trying to get her to calm down.  
  
"No, tell me now! Do I know her?"  
  
"...I'd say yes. You know her very well." Akane took a quick  
mental check of all her friends, trying to see if any of them might have slipped up and left a clue. "I fell for her the moment I first saw her."  
  
"...Dose she like you back?" Akane hopped the answer would be no.  
  
"I don't know... I hope so." Ranma truthfully answered  
  
"Who is she!" Akane couldn't hold it back any longer.  
  
"Gees' Akane, chill." Ranma propped himself on to his elbows. "I get the feeling you're not going to let me sleep until I talk, huh?" Akane shook her head no. "All right now that I'm `up'."  
  
"Is... she pretty?"  
  
"No," Ranma closed his eyes thinking of her. "Prety's a horrible word to describe her with, it only holds back on how good she really looks." Ranma blushed as he opened his eyes, looking at her he started again. "I felt it when I first saw her. God, I did not want to fall for her... I mean I was forcibly engaged to you..."  
  
"Bastard." Akane muttered under her breath.  
  
"...I really didn't want to lover her." Ranma pulled his knees to his chest continuing through her interruption. He was speaking as much to himself as to her. "You don't know how much I hated myself when I realized I cared for her."   
  
Akane thought of all the times Ranma had fought for her, the cure he had given up on for her well being. She damned herself for being so wrong about Ranma's intentions. Holding her head high she refused to cry, that she would do after Ranma had left.  
  
"There I was I had just come to the Dojo and everyone seemed to  
hate me..." Ranma became quite remembering how bad Nabiki's and Soun's  
reaction had hurt. "Then I saw her... really saw her. As everyone damned me for who and what I was, she took to me..."   
  
=I tried to be open to your curse,= Akane mentally pleaded of him.  
  
"I wanted to tell her then... but it's kind of awkward. I didn't know her, all I had was this voice telling me... Screaming at me in no uncertain terms `not to screw this one up'." Ranma laced his fingers behind his head then laid down looking up at nothing. "I was also a girl... After that it was just too damn hard, I mean dealing with you and all that other crap... if I could have only had said it then... When the time is right... I'm going to ask her to marry me..." Everything was silent for a long time. "I'm sorry Akane."  
  
Feeling an uncaring numbness wash over her Akane half heatedly  
followed along. Laughing with out mirth, she looked out, towards the vast nothingness that was her life. "What was the clincher... When did you know for sure you absolutely loved her?"  
  
"...When she told Nabiki to knock it off, and then asked if we  
could be friends..."  
  
=Why dose that sound soooooo familiar Akane gasped in surprise then turned towards Ranma. Her eyes were wide daring to hope she might be right. As far as she could tell Ranma hadn't moved a single muscle, his body was still prone hands behind the head looking skywards. On his chest was a tiny box, the type that would hold a piece of jewelry. A ring?   
  
"Hey Akane... I'm sorry about this, but would you... You know... Marry me?" Akane just looked at him dumbly, shocked was a few stapes past, Her brain had just short-circuited. "I love you." He said it so tenderly her heart threatened to shred it's self against her rib cage. Sitting up he looked at her, his blue/gray eyes quivering in fear of a negative response.  
  
Time stretched from the thirty seconds it took for her answer, to several years. Ranma waited for her to say yes, but all she did was sit motionless. =Oh god no!!! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!= Mentally he started to scream, for the first time Ranma started to entertain thoughts of a life with out Akane.  
  
"YES!!!" As Ranma moved to get up, he was crushed under the weight of an incredibly excited fiancé. He was totally caught off guard, and was bowled into the wall of the tent Akane wrapped him in a squeeze that put Any of Shampoo's best hugs to shame. He could actually feel his internal organs shift from the grip she had on him.  
  
Suddenly the force was gone, Ranma breathed in deeply trying to  
catch his breath. Looking over he saw Akane in the middle of the tent,  
next to her was the open and empty box. Her right hand's ring finger  
sparkled in the few stay beams of light that managed to make it into the tent. Akane openly marveled at the ring, while not as glamorous as some she had seen. To her there never was anything more impressive.  
  
She was alone in her happy little world until she felt a hand almost on her shoulder. Ranma was almost touching her, still a little  
scared. "You will be my wife?" He asked still needing reassurance. Akane seized him again this time he heard something creaking in his back, but didn't say anything. Deciding the years of chiropractic's he would need later were worth it. Yes, she cried the answer on to his chest burying her face deep in to his shoulder.  
  
Smiling Ranma brushed his hand through her short hair, for the  
first time in his life feeling as confident as he always pretended to be. Ranma held his one true fiancée close to him not caring about the problems that were bound to rise from this. Feeling a difference of the pressure against him, Ranma came back to reality. Akane was looking at him her face inches away from his. A few minuets later, after his first true kiss had ended, Ranma smiled knowing everything was right in the world.  
  
  
THE END  
  
And now a few words from me...  
  
Well I guess I need to explain the title to this one. When this  
one was over and edited, I still hadn't come up with a name for it. (I  
can't believe how hard it is to actually name one of these things.) It had been suggested to me that Ranma seemed to be playing a game with Akane for the entire run of the show, and manga. Both of them trying to push the other to the point of admitting their true feelings for the other. Since at the end of this story they both won the game, it only seemed right to call after the final move in chess. (Well to me at least.)   
Again if you liked this story let me know, please I love to hear responses. If you didn't like it, tell me what was wrong with it in you opinion. I have about seven other drafts that need to be edited, and a number of unfinished starts. As I said before I will post again, tell me what I might be doing wrong so I can correct any mistakes.  
  
Thanks for reading...  
  



End file.
